The present invention relates to cigarette packaging, and more particularly to a carton for containing a plurality of cigarette packages.
Until recently, cigarettes have been made with a typical or standard circumferential dimension of approximately 25 mm and packaged with twenty cigarettes per pack.
Slim or thin cigarettes having a smaller circumferential dimension than the more typical or conventional cigarettes are becoming more popular. In addition, it is contemplated that fewer than twenty standard size cigarettes can be packaged in a pack. These changing preferences among smokers result in certain practical problems in reduced transverse or depth dimensions of cigarette packages. The individual cigarette packages are required to have a tax stamp applied thereto. The tax stamps are applied by stamping machines of known and conventional construction. Such machines have been designed to handle and process standard size cartons including standard size packages. It is not economically feasible to modify such stamping machines or build supplemental stamping machines for handling cartons of smaller than standard size packages. In order to use existing tax stamping machines to properly stamp the smaller packages, the packages must be spaced and oriented in the carton, otherwise, the stamps will not be properly registered on the cigarette package.